What is the story about?
The Seattle Seahawks are in trouble. By no means is the season over at 4-4, but the NFC is deep enough just through the North alone that Seattle has to worry about making the playoffs, forget about making it back to the top of the NFC West. Their 34-17 loss to the Chicago Bears was their heaviest under Mike Macdonald since 2024, and the defense finally broke down after the offense spent the whole night spamming three-and-outs.
Myself and Bryce Coutts are here for post-game immediate reaction podcast,
which will start at around 8:40 pm PT. You can catch it live or just watch it afterward when you’re in a mood to listen to a lot of ranting.
Quick takeaways from Bears 34, Seahawks 17
- Brian Fleury’s magic lasted a week, he’s back on the hot seat. Where was the sense of urgency in this offense? Why are they constantly burning early downs with runs to the weaker side of the offensive line? Why does the offense look so consistently labored? How is the offense this broken when the ball isn’t being thrown to JSN? Fleury looks like he’s not in a good position to lead this offense.
- Sam Darnold was terrible and worse than the stats suggested. The one pick was kind to Darnold. The sack number could’ve been much higher if not for repeated undisciplined penalties by the Bears secondary. He had happy feet, inaccurate throws, basically everything we weren’t seeing last week against the Kansas City Chiefs. This is not a quarterback playing with confidence or trusting what he sees, and the combo of his struggles and Fleury’s struggles could be tied together.
- It turns out the running game just isn’t magically fixed overnight. Quenton Nelson is here, which is cool. Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price are back. That’s super cool. The run game stinks. That’s not cool. Only 61 yards on 17 carries from running backs.
- Even “The Dark Side” is fallible. Caleb Williams made some magnificent plays, but the Seahawks defense was not at their sharpest. They gave up a few preventable pass game explosives, and that screen to Kalif Raymond at 20-17 was a killer to concede. With Leonard Williams out with a stinger, the hope is it’s not a major issue because the d-line gets much thinner when he’s not in the lineup, and the defense is worse off. Nick Emmanwori was last week’s darling and one of this week’s worst performers.
- The Seahawks special teams was horrendous. Penalties, missed kicks, blocked field goals, and poor kick returns galore. This was an unacceptable performance by a unit that was magnificent last year and has been way too inconsistent this year.
- Seattle’s postseason hopes are in jeopardy. While Seattle doesn’t have another daunting stretch on the schedule, this team isn’t playing well enough to trust that they’re capable of comfortably winning against anyone right now. A lot of things need fixing and I’m not sure how much can be fixed this year.
